The use of mobile communication devices equipped with a camera (for example, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), camera phone, smart phone, and so on), digital camcorders, digital cameras, and the like, which may be called collectively digital image capture devices, is steadily expanded around the world.
Such kind of image capture device usually provides a preview image, where a preview function enables a user to choose a scene by displaying images reflected in the lens as if they are a series of continuous images.
An emerging technology provides information about an object included in the preview image described above or information about objects within a predetermined distance. The technology above is called augmented reality.
Augmented reality is a technology which superimposes information related to a real world on the real world image, providing a mixed reality of a real world image and information. By utilizing the augmented reality, the user can easily obtain information related to the real world.
Under these circumstances, various means for providing the user with more useful information through augmented reality are under development.